Meeting Report for 12th December, 2018

Excalibur Speakers met on the 12th December for our last meting of the year, which was a Christmas-themed delight. Our Toastmaster was Brian.

Freddie introduced a new idea: a game of spot the (Christmas) word bingo, which kept members and guests on their toes (or edges of their seats) as they identified the various words cunningly disguised throughout the evening's oratory. Our President, Monika, proved to be the most alert person in the room, winning this rare and highly prestigious award.

Cat then took control of Table Topics. We do things a little differently at Excalibur: immediately after someone has delivered a TT, another club member or guest is invited on stage to evaluate it.

Our first prepared speech was delivered by Paul, "The Wandering Star" (CC Manual - 7 - Research Your Topic) - in which he examined evidence from several sources to determine whether the Bible story of The Star of Bethlehem was based on fact or fiction.

Ian delivered the second speech, "Queen's Gambit" (Speciality Speeches - 4 - Read Out Loud) - which was a beautifully delivered reading about a famous people perfectly adapted to long distance running.

Ben got on stage next, with "Bottle Top" (Speciality Speeches - 2 - Inspire Your Audience) - a treatise on how improved individual wellbeing is good for the economy, society and planet.

The speeches were evaluated by Chinkata, Lynne and Errol with their commendations and recommendations further developed (along with new insights) in our Open Feedback session, which was run by Ian.

Anke was General Evaluator. The highlight of her session peaked when she announced she was going to join Excalibur!

The best Table Topic winner was our guest, Melanie. Best speech evaluator was Errol and the best speaker award went to Ben.

Out next meeting is at 19:00hrs on 9th January, 2019 at the Fitzrovian Community Centre, Foley St., W1W 6DN. All members and guest are most welcome!

Meeting Report for 28th November, 2018

Our President Monica opened the meeting before handing over to our Toastmaster for the evening, Cat, who invited Carolina to introduce out three guests.

Our Timekeeper, Lukasz then explained his role before Ian took to the floor to run the Table Topics session. Developing a challenging theme proposed by Brian at the last meeting, participants were invited on stage in pairs to debate alternative design scenarios of various body parts (!). Instant evaluations were then delivered by our club members.

Freddie delivered the first speech of the evening: Special Occasion Speeches - Accepting an Award. This was to celebrate his ASS award which was achieved in a record Toastmasters' time. Which may or may not have been a record slow time.

Brian then spoke: "Uncle George the Marathon Man" - Motivational Strategies - 2 - Evaluation and Feedback. The speech was an amusing and fascinating insight into a relative's 1908 Olympic performance.

Robin entertained us in her Star Trek uniform (including pointy ears) with "A Vulcan in the Dragon's Den" - Speciality Speeches - 3 - Sell a Product. She successfully raised VL150m (Vulcan Lira or £40m at the 2055 exchange rate). 

The speeches we evaluated by Simon, Paul and Chinkata before Ben teased more commendations and recommendations from the audience in our Open Feedback session.

Hoang, our General Evaluator, then presented his thoughts on what he liked and what he'd change about Excalibur. The former outnumbered the latter by a considerable margin.

Monika then awarded the prizes for the evening. Best Table Topics was shared by Robin and one of our guests, Panikkos. Chinkata was voted best evaluator. Robin then scooped a second prize - Best Speaker - which she shared with Freddie.

The next meeting is on 12th December, at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN.

   

Meeting Report for 14th November, 2018

Our meeting got underway after Harsha had met and gret (I know - but it rhymes) and Brian had called us to order. An auspicious start by two DTMs in as many minutes! We are, an advanced club, after all...
Then our President, Monica took over before handing over to the TM for the evening, Ben, whose meeting theme was important lessons learned when travelling. As the evening progressed, our sophisticated, reflective and well-travelled members were introduced on stage, to share hugely valuable travel-related philosophical insights. Or not, as the case may be.
Our Timekeeper, (Commander) Robin took time out from her time travels around Alfa Centauri to (Star) Trek all the way to Fitzrovia and no sooner had she illuminated us as to the meaning of the magical lights, Brian came on stage to run the Table Topics session. He introduced an interesting new idea: a Q & A between an imaginary employer (Cat) and a potential Santa Claus (David). Despite the piercing questions, there was universal approval when it was announced that he got the job.

Three excellent speeches were then delivered: Harsha described his life as an "Ugly Duckling" (Dynamic Leadership - 1 - Icebreaker); Ian talked us through his "Pathways Experience" (The Entertaining Speaker - Make Them Laugh) and David read aloud an abbreviated version of Oscar Wilde's "The Model Millionaire" (Interpretive Reading - 1 - Tell a Story).
The speeches were evaluated by Carolina, Freddie and Chinkata.
Cat then teased out more commendations and recommendations on the speeches in our Open Feedback session - a feature in which Excalibur is (almost?) unique.

Our visiting General Evaluator was Chris, whose insightful delivery brought the meeting (nearly) to a close...

...but not before the evening's awards were handed out. Cat and David shared best Table Topics, Freddie and Chinkata were voted best evaluators and David scooped best speaker.

With special thanks to out stand-in photographer of the evening.

Our next meeting is on 28th November at 19:00, at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!

Meeting on Wednesday 10th October 2018

The club met on 10th October for another high quality and entertaining evening. After (acting) President Freddie had started the evening off, he handed over to Toastmaster Errol, who steered the good ship Excalibur with his usual usual finesse. Table Topics Master was Ben and Timekeeper David kept everything on (err...) time.

Our four guests (including our GE Adolfo, who later performed this role with great energy and insight) were introduced by Harsha. Each told us a little about themselves.

Table Topics Master Ben then fired a range of randomly selected questions at a number of eager participants. Whether explaining, "Why I love sharks", "Why French food is superior to Italian" or "Why horse riding should be taught in schools", none of the questions managed to throw a participant. Not that they were intended to.

Our prepared speeches were given firstly by Robin, "An Irish Reading" (Speciality Speaking - 4 - Read Out Loud). The quality, excitement, erudition, pace, grammar, characterisation and interwoven subtleties of the first chapter of whatever book she chose to read from generated gasps from the on-the-edge-of-their-seats audience. The Table Topic Master was recorded as having made a comment to the effect that the content sounded vaguely familiar and your blog chronicler echoes that sentiment.

David then spoke for seven minutes as he took us on a fascinating trip that reached back to his schooldays, with, "What to Find and Where" (Innovative Planning - 2 - Evaluation and Feedback.

Our third speech was delivered by Chinkata, which was a practice of his competition-winning humorous speech, "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Grandfather". It produced laughs all around.

The speeches were evaluated by Paul, Ian and Simon before Lukasz ran the open feedback session, where members and guests made further commendations and recommendation on the speeches. This element of the evening is unusual - perhaps unique to Excalibur (which is an advanced Toastmasters club) -  and provides both more insights for the speakers' (and audience's) benefit, as well as an opportunity for more people to contribute to the evening.

Simon was on top form this evening, scooping the best Table Topics and evaluator awards. Chinkata was the winner of the best speaker award.

The evening was a great success. Many thanks to all who attended, including those who participated, whether with roles, spontaneous or prepared material.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 24th October at the Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. All are very welcome!   

 
 

Improve Your Slides!

Planning on using slides in a presentation? Well, there's more to it that just cramming every last bullet -pointed fact or photo into PowerPoint!

My thanks to Ian, who brought these useful articles to my attention.

Aspect Ratios: 

https://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/the-art-of-using-aspect-ratios-in-digital-photography--photo-7947

https://www.woodst.com/web-design-development/what-is-image-aspect-ratio-and-why-it-matters-a-lot/

The Golden Ratio:
http://emptyeasel.com/2009/01/20/a-guide-to-the-golden-ratio-aka-golden-section-or-golden-mean-for-artists/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

2018 Excalibur Speakers Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests

We held our annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on Wednesday 12th September in our Fitzrovia venue and unsurprisingly, the room was packed!

Sergeant at Arms, Marcin brought some order to the excited audience when he opened the meeting before handing over to the evening's President, Freddie, who then injected even more excitement and energy into the buzzing room! The Competition Chairperson, Sonia then took to the stage to explain how the contest works, the rules and the speaker order for the Humorous Speech Contest.

First on stage was Ian, with a speech titled "Kakistocracy"- which was a beautifully constructed discourse on the absurdity by which government and businesses are run by the very worst qualified people. Brain - looking dapper in his security guard outfit - was second on stage with his spooky-funny tale "A Night at the Museum". Third up was Monika, with "Professional Interviewee" in which she recounted the many lows and highs of job seeking before finally Chinkata, with "Father, Son and Grandfather", shared some of the experiences and lessons he'd learned via three generations of his family back in Nigeria. There were laughs aplenty but because Toastmasters doesn't allow filming of competitions, you'll have to take my word for it!

Next we had the Table Topics Contest, with contestants David, Simon, Brian, Ian and Chinkata ready to do (friendly) battle. The Table Topic question was, "Aliens have invaded Earth. Your boss wants to hire them. What do you tell your team to convince them this is a good idea?" Each provided a unique and clever answer within the allocated time and no contestants were disqualified in either this or the Humorous Speech Contest for time infringements.

When the votes were finally counted and recounted and rerecounted, it was time for the prize-giving. David won the Table Topics, with Chinkata second and Simon third. 

Prize certificates were awarded by the Chief Judge, Andy, who kept everything running smoothly throughout the entertaining evening. 

Chinkata won the Humorous Speech Contest with Monika in second place. David and Chinkata will now progress to the Area competition.

The evening was a great success and our next meeting starts at 7pm on Wednesday 26th September at the Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN - guests are very welcome!

  

Another fun-filled meeting!

Excalibur Meeting Report for 22nd August, 2018

The fourth Wednesday of the month brought us another excellent Excalibur meeting at the Fitzrovia Community Centre (2 Foley street, London W1W 6DN). A location selected for numerous reasons including the adjacent King and Queen public house, where (factoid alert) music legend Bob Dylan made his first European appearance.

Lukasz met and greeted our three guests: Tomasz, Paul and Aydin (who was GE for the evening) before Cat (recently awarded her DTM - so many congratulations to her!) called us to order.

With our club president Monika delivering a speech later that evening, the President's role was temporarily assigned to Robin, who inspired us with a (literally) delicious take on toast-making and how this skill is the (short)bread and butter of the accomplished speaker. Maybe you had to be there...

It was then time for Robin to hand over to Paul, our experienced Toastmaster for the evening, who brought experience and enthusiasm to the role.

Marcin then explained the Timekeeper role before the Toastmaster handed over to Ian, our Table Topics Master, who chose a thought-provoking back-to-school theme for the session. 

Participants included Cat, Lukasz, Tomasz, Robin, Chinkata and David who were evaluated by Lynne, Ben, Paul, Freddy, Marcin and Monika. 

It was then time for the prepared speeches. Monika began with a compelling speech titled "Project Atlas" (High Performance Leadership - 1 - Sharing Your Vision) which proposed a better way in which Toastmasters might display club distribution information. 

Eva then amused us with "Unexpected London" - a cultural examination of some of the major differences (of a largely liquid nature) between the UK and Taiwan (Humorously Speaking - 2 - Leave them with a Smile). Indeed Eva did leave us with a smile...as we bid her farewell as she returns to her native Taiwan. Investigations are underway to establish whether she will be travelling via her country's eponymous airline. 

Freddie then presented "How to Build Long Term Relationships through Sales" (The Professional Speaker - 3 - The Sales Training Speech). This twenty minute masterclass included an original insight that compared the sales methodology with the storyteller's hero's journey. 

The speeches were evaluated by Alfredo, Ben and Lynne which was followed by the Open Feedback session, facilitated by Chinkata. As an advanced Toastmasters club, Excalibur puts special emphasis on feedback, and this nine minute session allows members of the audience to add to what the previous speech evaluators have proposed, in the traditional commend-recommend-commend format. 

It was then time for the General Evaluator, Aydin to present his report on the club before we moved to the prize giving. Results were as follows:

Table Topics Winner: Robin

Best Evaluator(s): Lynne and Alfredo (Ben, who came dead last, will be attempting to employ the Freddy Daniells' evaluation technique next time. Details on request.)

Best Speech: Freddy

The next meeting will start at 7pm on Wednesday 12th September at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, W1W 6DN. 

     

Another Wonderful Excalibur Meeting...

EXCALIBUR SPEAKERS MEETING REPORT FOR 8^TH AUGUST, 2018

We enjoyed another fantastic meeting in the Fitzrovia Community Centre, with Ben calling the meeting to order before he handed over to club president Monika, who opened the meeting. She then introduced our Toastmaster for the evening, Alfredo, who took command.

Robin—who was performing the role of Meet and Greet—then invited our three guests on stage: Marti, Thomas and Edmund, who all told us a little about themselves and explained why they were visiting Excalibur, which is an advanced Toastmasters club.

Our Timekeeper was Nick, who explained his role before effortlessly keeping things on track throughout the evening.

Table Topics Master was Ian, whose topic was stupidity (!) though his questions were anything but. Ben, Thomas, David, Robin, Monika and Edmund all found something interesting to say, though members of the audience in general and Marcin in particular voiced doubts about the veracity of Ben’s claims to have punched (later to become) Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the nose, back in the day. Evaluators were Marcin, Eva, Freddie, Cat, Simon and Errol.

 

The first prepared speech was delivered by Chinkata (Interpretive Reading 5 – The Oratorical Speech). He chose President Kennedy’s 1961 powerful inauguration address, written by Ted Sorensen. This is often considered one of the very greatest speeches and Chinkata did it justice with his flawless delivery.

Our second speaker, Lukasz (The Entertaining Speaker – 1 – The Entertaining Speech) was titled “How to Meet the Queen”. Not, as it turned out, QE2, but a damsel in his coffee shop! The audience shared his pain when it was revealed his carefully crafted advance was not entirely successful.

In our third speech, Cat (Storytelling – 5 – Bringing History to Life) recounted the mystery of the ten day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. From a car abandoned at a quarry to denials of her identity, Cat kept us enthralled not just by the narrative, but also by her expert use of pauses.

Three insightful speech evaluations were delivered by Errol, Marcin and Sue.

Freddie then conducted the Open Feedback session—where audience members are invited to make commends and recommends on the evening’s speeches.

Our General Evaluator was Marti. When Marti commented that Nick, the Timekeeper, had performed so faultlessly that he couldn’t think of a single recommend, Nick helpfully volunteered him an extra two minutes to develop the point.

  

Alfredo then handed back to Monika, who announced the evening’s prize winners:

Table Topic Winner: Robin 

Best Evaluator: Errol

Best Speech: Cat

Our next meeting is at 19:00 on 22^nd August, 2018 at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!

    

EXCALIBUR NEWS!

EXCALIBUR NEWS!

Excalibur Meeting Report, 25th July 2018

Meeting Report, 26th July 201

😎 Excalibur Speaker = EasySpeak + Website + FaceBook + Twitter + Email + Blog 😎

Excalibur Advanced Speakers Toastmasters Club Meeting Report for Wednesday 25^th July 2018

On a (rather too?) balmy London evening (the mercury hit 31 degrees Celsius/88 degrees Fahrenheit and off-the-scale humidity), our meeting was called to order by Marcin.

The meeting itself was opened by our President, Monika, before she handed over to our Toastmaster, Robin. Robin expertly sailed the good ship Excalibur far from the jagged rocks of boredom and whirlpools or disappointment by giving us a little background information about the role of Toastmaster before introducing the theme of the evening: fairy tales.

Before each person took the stage, their favourite fairy tale was announced, and why it was special for them.

Robin then invited our Meeter and Greeter for the evening, Freddie on stage who introduced our three guests: Moh (who was our GE for the evening), Marti and Thomas. After each had told us a little about themselves, our Toastmaster invited our immediate past president, Chinkata to explain his role as Timekeeper.

Ben was Table Topic Master for the evening and continuing the fairy tale theme, he invited a member of the audience to choose the hero of the evening’s story from a set of twelve carefully selected photos. The room fell silent with anticipation before the face of our protagonist was held up for all to see. There were gasps when (in a possibly slightly rigged vote), people recognised our Prince Charming as none other than club VPE Freddie!

Table Topic participants Cat, Lynne, Nick, Ian and David in turn picked two pictures from a hidden deck which they were invited to incorporate in what became a fast-paced and unpredictable yarn that one audience member was overheard suggesting was good enough to be long-listed for the Booker Prize.

Once the story had reached its riveting denouement, the Table Topic contestants were evaluated by Chinkata, Monika, Noor, Marcin and Lukasz (possibly even in that order). The club followed an atypical Table Topics this evening which brought a nuanced and even challenging variation to one of Toastmasters’ most popular activities. The club’s VPPR (this evening's Table Topic Master) can report that members gallantly rose to the challenge. We await confirmation of this assessment from the VPE.

     

After the Timekeeper’s report, we moved on to the prepared speeches which began with a speech by Lynne titled “Say Anything” (Pathways Strategic Relationships #2 – Evaluation and Feedback). The speech was an expertly delivered and amusing semantic feast that held the audience throughout.

Our second prepared speech, from the Story Telling Manual #2 Let’s Get Personal, was delivered by Noor. “Wisdom from an Outcast” took us on a Tantric journey of self-discovery. 

Our final speech was delivered by Ian (#2 from the Entertaining Speaker manual, “Resources for Entertainment”). Ian introduced us to the concept of “Kakistocracy” which he explained was the all too prevalent system of government in which the worst people gain positions of power. 

Speech evaluators were Ian, Nick and Freddie, all of whom delivered skilful and insightful evaluations.

Excalibur Speakers followed these evaluations with an Open Feedback session—in which the entire audience is invited to make commendations and recommendations on the prepared speeches. Expertly moderated by Cat, this session teased out more valuable suggestions for the speakers and audience to ponder.

Our General Evaluator, Moh, then took the stage to describe what he liked about our club, also making a number of suggestions. Moh demonstrated his experience with his relaxed and thoughtful delivery.
  

The evening wound down with Robin, our accomplished Toastmaster handing back to Monika, our President, who announced the evening's prize winners:

Table Topic Winner: Ian.

Speech Evaluators, Freddie and Nick shared the honours.

Best Speech: Lynne.

   

Despite the tropical heat and oppressive humidity, attendance levels were very good and the evening was a great success. A promising degree of rehydration was achieved in the  neighbouring King and Queen public house immediately afterwards.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 8^th August at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, London W1W 6DN.

Guests are very welcome!